


You Deserve Better

by allhailthenerdmage



Series: The Mining Town Four [1]
Category: Everyman HYBRID, Slender Man Mythos
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Evan Needs a Hug, Evan and Jeff are brothers, Fairmount Kids - Freeform, Jeff is a pure boy who loves his brother, The Mining Town Four - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 09:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14161392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allhailthenerdmage/pseuds/allhailthenerdmage
Summary: Evan snaps sometimes, gets angry and yells horrible things at his family and whoever is close enough to hear him. The doctor just ignores it and does his best to comfort the boy until the fit passes. But as for his siblings, the things he says hang around in their heads for day afterwards. And they stick in Evan’s head too.





	You Deserve Better

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for a prompt on tumblr and liked it enough to post so here!

Evan snaps sometimes, gets angry and yells horrible things at his family and whoever is close enough to hear him. The doctor just ignores it and does his best to comfort the boy until the fit passes. But as for his siblings, the things he says hang around in their heads for day afterwards. And they stick in Evan’s head too, he hides for weeks afterwards and only comes out to eat.

Jeff doesn’t feel bad, the things that Evan says don’t bother him very much, he knows Evan doesn’t mean it. But he worries when Evan hides, he doesn't play pirates with them or even come out to show them his new pictures. So he goes looking for him one night after a particularly bad outburst.

He find him under his bed, camera and photos held tight to his chest as he stares off into space. Jeff shimmies under the bed next to him and offers his brother a smile, bumping their shoulders gently. Evan doesn’t say anything but nudges back and looks over at Jeff, eyebrow raised.

“Hey,” Jeff keeps his voice soft and continues to smile.

“Hi,” Evan shifts slightly so he can face his brother.

“What’re you doing down here?”

“I belong here,” He says quietly, eyes clenched shut. “I did a bad thing again.”

“I know,” Jeff shrugs as best as he can, “But you didn’t mean it. Papa says it’s okay as long as you feel bad.”

“I do.”

“Then it’s alright,” Jeff smiles brightly, “Why do you have your camera?”

“Lookin’ at pictures.” Evan passes the device over, still too big for his small hands to hold properly. “I like this one.” He points to the photo on top of the stack.

It's of them, all four kids and Mama and Papa, smiling widely as Evan is hoisted atop Papa’s shoulder and Stephanie is held in Mama’s arms. Jeff has one arm thrown over Vinny’s shoulder and the other held up in a wave. He remembers this, it had been Steph’s birthday and they had gone out for ice cream and to visit the playground. Evan hadn’t stopped smiling all day, he said his cheeks hurt the next morning.

“You guys deserve better,” Evan says softly, quiet enough that Jeff wouldn't have heard him if they hadn’t been lying shoulder to shoulder under a bed. “I’m a bad kid, my mom was right.”

“What?” Jeff shakes his head, nearly hitting it on the bed frame in his frenzy, “No! You’re the best brother ever! We all love you.”

“Why? I call you bad names and do bad things, that means I’m a bad kid.” Evan sounds so sure in his logic that Jeff wants to cry, he reaches over and grabs his brother’s hand.

“Ev, you know that’s not true. If you were a bad kid we wouldn’t be brothers, Papa wouldn’t let you stay here and the other’s wouldn’t love you!”

And Evan does cry, his eyes wide and the ghost of a smile on his lips. He pulls Jeff out from under the bed and hugs him tightly, camera and photos lying forgotten under the bed. His shoulders are shaking as he cries and Jeff holds him tightly, rocking them back and forth just like Mama does when he has a nightmare.

“Thanks, Jeffers.” He grins at the nickname and pulls away slightly so he can look Evan in the eye.

“Anytime, Ev.” Evan finally grins back and they stand shakily. As if summoned, Vinny appears in the doorway with Steph in tow and raises his homemade hook with a grin. Steph doesn’t say anything but smiles at Evan and holds out her treasure map encouragingly.

Evan laughs quietly, “You guys came looking for me?”

Vinny laughs and nods, “Duh, we can't have a crew without a captain.” Evan gives a soft snort and claps his hands, grinning from ear to ear.

“Then let's get this ship underway!”

**Author's Note:**

> Abrupt ending is abrupt lol


End file.
